We want our toys to be representative of real kids’ lives and – hello! – boys and girls can happily coexist and have fun together.

Written by Amy Harkin,

Jun 13, 2019.

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Why Boy Dolls Matter

The reason why we have three boy dolls in the Lottie range? We want our toys to be representative of real kids’ lives and – hello! – boys and girls can happily coexist and have fun together. We’ve noticed from observing our own children that they will happily play - with different toys and in mixed groups - until all those little remarks combine and try to convince them otherwise. We’ve all heard them:

“That’s not for girls!”“Is it a boy or girl game?”“Do boys play with dolls?”

But in the words of campaigners, Let Toys Be Toys, “The real world has moved on. These gender stereotypes are tired and out of date. Kids should decide for themselves what they think is fun.” And, at Lottie Dolls, we’ve never been afraid to challenge the status quo. We plan to continue to encourage kids to be kids, to play – imaginatively and adventurously – and to have fun!

The 3 Boy Dolls in the Lottie Dolls’ range

Our mission is to celebrate kids in all their glorious, heart-warming and life-affirming diversity. We want to empower kids – regardless of gender, ability, ethnicity or interests – to follow their dreams. The themes in our range reflect typical and yet aspirational childhood activities.

In the boy doll collection, there’s a Kite Flyer, a Junior Reporter and a little boy with a Loyal Companion.

And there are stargazers, artists and body-boarders, too!

Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls

In the NY Times archive, there’s a thought-provoking article with this title from almost a quarter of a century ago. The writer, Katha Pollitt, says:

“We don't have a choice, really, about whether we should give our children messages about what it means to be male and female -- they're bombarded with them from morning till night. The question, as always, is what do we want those messages to be?”

It’s interesting, then, to read this contemporary account of the boy dolls’ experience of twin boys – at the time, six years old – from When the Lottie Dolls came to stay, “I wondered how they would take to the doll but they were delighted with it. I thought there may be a bit of “but dolls are for girls!!” there wasn’t even a mention of anything like that.”

In the words of Katha Pollitt,

“You'll find that for every kid who fits a stereotype, there's another who's breaking one down.”

And we believe that we have a responsibility – as parents, as toymakers - to do our bit to help challenge those stereotypes.